My Top 8 Predictions for 2010

[saintsRrising]

1/ BJ will step and become one of the AFL's true elite players.
2/ CJ will become a midfielder rather than just a tagger
3/ Peake will be our Farren Ray of 2010
4/ Ben will arrive by seasons end
5/ Armo will became a regular
6/ Roo will have more impact in 2010 than 2009
7/ Stanley may not play much senior football in 2010, but will excite us with his games at Sandy
8/ Zac will continue where he left off in 2009.


and Walsh..well I want to see him play some footy before I make any predictions...

[stinger]

and Walsh..well I want to see him play some footy before I make any predictions...

i'm willing to bet he makes it....big time.....

[#1GILL]

- Armitage will come along in leaps and bounds with regular games (SC & DT lock)

-Smith will play a couple of games and give us a small taste of how good he will/can be

- Raph will finally earn the respect of the football world

- NDS will really step up and become one of the best 3-4 mids in the league

- Milne will redeem himself for his poor finals series

- Walsh will do some amazing things without being consistant

[saintsRrising]

-



- NDS will really step up and become one of the best 3-4 mids in the league

-

It will be interesting to see if Dal can go from being very good to be elite as well by becoming a more complete player.

f our mids Dal has always struck me as the one who has the potential to snag more gals than he does....along with gram if he could improve his accuracy.

[SainterK]

-



- NDS will really step up and become one of the best 3-4 mids in the league

-

It will be interesting to see if Dal can go from being very good to be elite as well by becoming a more complete player.

f our mids Dal has always struck me as the one who has the potential to snag more gals than he does....along with gram if he could improve his accuracy.

[saintsRrising]

-



- NDS will really step up and become one of the best 3-4 mids in the league

-

It will be interesting to see if Dal can go from being very good to be elite as well by becoming a more complete player.

f our mids Dal has always struck me as the one who has the potential to snag more gals than he does....along with gram if he could improve his accuracy.

Oh whata difference an "o" makes

[St Loxton]

3/ Peake will be our Farren Ray of 2010



That would be very handy indeed.

[The OtherThommo]

1. Roo will put distance between himself and every other player in the competition (on the back of his first fullish preseason in years and the extra 3 Kgs that has allowed him to add).
2. The Lendog will move from elite to legend as he shows everyone how to ride shotgun to his skipper's exceptionalism.
3. McEvoy will ascend to the No. 1 ruckman by mid year, and won't surrender it until 2022.
4. Sam Fisher will collect a world record number of possessions for a key defender.
5. Brendon Goddard will win the Brownlow Medal by 7 votes (one less than Banger in '98?) and kick a record 49 goals for a rotating midfielder.
6. Zac Dawson will be named the AA Full Back before he's played 60 games (which would be a record) and announce his engagement to Jennifer Hawkins after one catwalk performance at the Myer Spring Collection unveiling.
7. Stephen Baker will win his appeal at the International Court of Human Rights, thereby negating his suspension when Jeff Farmer ran into the back of him.
8. Tommy Walsh will win Irishman of the Year for his 7 goals in the AFL Grand Final. And, despite being offered the Prime Ministership of Ireland on the back of his extraordinary transition to AFL legend status, he will renounce his Irishness, become an Australian citizen and accept the offer to become the Leader-In Waiting of the ALP, under the tutelage of P.J. Keating.

Good year, all round.

[dcstkfc]

12 :D

[dcstkfc]

:wink:

6/ Roo will have more impact in 2010 than 2009

I'm salivating at what this could mean

[ben_fff]

5. Brendon Goddard will win the Brownlow Medal by 7 votes (one less than Banger in '98?) and kick a record 49 goals for a rotating midfielder.

Didn't Ablett kick 70 odd from a wing in the 80's?

[HarveysDeciple]

5. Brendon Goddard will win the Brownlow Medal by 7 votes (one less than Banger in '98?) and kick a record 49 goals for a rotating midfielder.

Didn't Ablett kick 70 odd from a wing in the 80's?

Kicked 87 in 1989, played probably the first 18 or 19 games on a wing, then went forward.

Kicked 14 off a forward flank against the tiges that year.

[ben_fff]

So Goddard will kick 88! cheers for clearing that up

[spert]

NDS to the forward line (not a big enough engine for midfield)
Peake to wing
Armo in the middle alternating with Lenny off the bench
Gwilt at FF
Ben Macca in the forward pocket, second ruck
Kozi back to CHB
Steven to pressure Milne's position
BJ in the backline running it through the lines with Gram

Great to see so many good players who will be fighting for senior positions -the best run up to a season for a long while.

[ben_fff]

NDS to the forward line (not a big enough engine for midfield)
Peake to wing
Armo in the middle alternating with Lenny off the bench
Gwilt at FF
Ben Macca in the forward pocket, second ruck
Kozi back to CHB
Steven to pressure Milne's position
BJ in the backline running it through the lines with Gram

Great to see so many good players who will be fighting for senior positions -the best run up to a season for a long while.

Sorry I know it's you're opinion but what was wrong with Kosi in ff this year? I know he might have had some quiet games but the forward line seemed the most balanced I've seen it. As for Gwilt at Full Forward I don't really get that, he's struggled every game he's played in the forward line and has only played a handful of passable games since his debut, the backline should stay as is.

[plugger66]

NDS to the forward line (not a big enough engine for midfield)
Peake to wing
Armo in the middle alternating with Lenny off the bench
Gwilt at FF
Ben Macca in the forward pocket, second ruck
Kozi back to CHB
Steven to pressure Milne's position
BJ in the backline running it through the lines with Gram

Great to see so many good players who will be fighting for senior positions -the best run up to a season for a long while.

I pretty much reckon you have everyone of those wrong but who knows afterall we did lose 2 H and A games last year so we must change a few things.

[vacuous space]

It will be interesting to see if Dal can go from being very good to be elite as well by becoming a more complete player.

f our mids Dal has always struck me as the one who has the potential to snag more gals than he does....along with gram if he could improve his accuracy.

Surely you're not suggesting Dal isn't elite. He led the club in contested possessions and was top-5 in the league in clearances. This despite constantly drawing the opposition's best tagger and being blocked and held away from contests.

Dal kicked 16.5 and had 18 goal assists. That's a pretty good return from a mid who doesn't spend much time in the forward line. It's more goals than any of our other mids got. Gram kicked 12.23 and Joey kicked 8.19. I'd look at those two as guys who really need to improve in front of goals.

IMO Dal is the third best player on our team and gets constantly underrated around here for reasons I'll never quite understand. He terrifies opposition coaches. Thompson had to turn a Brownlow medalist into a tagger in the GF because he refused to take his best tagger off Dal Santo.

[SainterK]

NDS to the forward line (not a big enough engine for midfield)
Peake to wing
Armo in the middle alternating with Lenny off the bench
Gwilt at FF
Ben Macca in the forward pocket, second ruck
Kozi back to CHB
Steven to pressure Milne's position
BJ in the backline running it through the lines with Gram

Great to see so many good players who will be fighting for senior positions -the best run up to a season for a long while.

Sorry I know it's you're opinion but what was wrong with Kosi in ff this year? I know he might have had some quiet games but the forward line seemed the most balanced I've seen it. As for Gwilt at Full Forward I don't really get that, he's struggled every game he's played in the forward line and has only played a handful of passable games since his debut, the backline should stay as is.

Leave Kosi there, he has improved each year since holding the position so looking forward to what he does this year. I actually agree that Gwilt could make the medium forward role his own, but not a dedicated FF.

I agree with Steven, but not just Milne, let him breathe down all their necks and keep it competitive.

[saintsRrising]

It will be interesting to see if Dal can go from being very good to be elite as well by becoming a more complete player.

f our mids Dal has always struck me as the one who has the potential to snag more gals than he does....along with gram if he could improve his accuracy.

Surely you're not suggesting Dal isn't elite. .

I think the elite tag is given to too many players. A bit like the "champion" or "star" player terms that are used to describe too may.

IMO Roo and Lenny were the only two "elite" players at the Saints last year.

Dal went very very VERY close though. Sam Fisher is another barely short of being "elite".

IMO Dal and BJ will both be up there with Roo and Hayes in 2010.
Hayes became an elite player later in his career. Dal will do it earlier than Hates IMO.

It may be that my perspective of what is elite is just a tad narrower than yours.

[saintsRrising]

IMO Dal is the third best player on our team .

I agree there.

[Thinline]

I got on a bit of a roll...

1 Fev will do something stupid
2 Lions will fly until 1 happens
3 Collingwood off field incidents will be swept under the carpet
4 Carlton will come close to last without Fev, stupid or not
5 Barry Hall will rip a hammie clean off the bone in the NAB cup
5 Richmond will win 2 - Carlton and Freo
6 Geelong will fade under the weight of a string of off field controversies; Stokes the tip of the ice berg
7 Malthouse will whine about GC draft concessions to deflect attention from his sides 3-8 ladder possie at the half way mark
8 St Kilda will finish second with 18-4
9 Goddard will win the Brownlow in a canter
10 We'll beat Adelaide in the grannie
11 Adam Cooney and Buddy Franklin will head to Carrara to join the Goldie at the end of the year
12 Karmichael Hunt WILL make the transition on return from Biarritz
13 The Anzac Day clash will still make me wince because it's occurrence is so unfair and so disrespectfully a cash cow built on tragedy
14 Sheahan will back 7 sides for the flag during the year
15 Not being vindictive - Luke Ball will be shown up as sadly past it, he'll be dropped, no one will say anything in the media because it's Collingwood.
16 Freo will be the side that wins the ones they shouldn't and loses the ones they should win

[PJ]

I think fans on this site will continue to chew each other's heads off

SainterK will be voted nicest person on the forum

P66 will find new levels of sarcasm

Rodgerfox will be voted sports fisherman for 2010

Andrew Lovett won't get father of the year

Luke Ball will be in RW & B again (only the red will be blood)

Ross's bald patch will expand like the sahara

& I'll back Joey as the improver coz no one's given him a mention

[vacuous space]

I think the elite tag is given to too many players. A bit like the "champion" or "star" player terms that are used to describe too may.

Since we've drifted into semantics (my fault; apologies), I'd say that all of those terms are vague and open to interpretation. I'd say that the players generally defined as 'champions' are those that exemplify the greatest qualities of our game. So the likes of Ablett (Sr) and Carey, for their onfield exploits, and players like Harvey overall. Somebody else might see it differently. There's no clear definition. The Americans, for example, just equate champions with winners.

I would tend to equate 'elite' with 'exceptional'. Dal Santo's a top midfielder in one of the top midfields. He excels in contested ball and clearances which are generally considered key indicators for a mid. I'd consider Sam Fisher to be an elite defender. I'd probably use the term 'star' in a similar manner.

The important thing though is that we agree on where Dal Santo fits, even if we disagree on the language. I feel way too often that, around here, there's a different set of standards for Dal. If Jarryn Geary started playing like Dal, we'd be doing cartwheels, having kittens or some combination thereof. But when Dal plays like Dal, he's lazy.

I apologise for misinterpreting you.

[saintsRrising]

I apologise for misinterpreting you.

No apology needed as language is often an imprecise thing.

With Dal, like you I currently have him as No 3 at the Saints.

In 2010 he could well move up. Not sure Lenny can get better. Dal and Roo can.

My crystal ball has Roo as No 1 on 2010.
I think Dal may well give Hayes a tussle for No2.

BJ could be anything in 2010.
Sam Fisher has the potential to impact more, but with other coaches more aware of him now his task is now harder than it was.

[st_Trav_ofWA]

1: Mark Harvey will be sacked befor round 10 after Freo go winless for that period

2: NicNat will be crunched so hard in his frist ruck contest his great leap will be deemed usless and he will be moved to the forward line

3: Ben Cousins will tear his hammy and miss over half the year

4: Carlton will slide big time hoping Judd and Betts can pick up the goal scoring they lost with Fev

5: Jono Brown will deck Fev mid way through a game after Fev chucks the s***s cause the ball is going through Browny more then him

6: Jobe Watson will shave his hair off to try and be more like GabbletJR

7: North will draw a crowd of 25 people to its game against Freo

8: Hawthorn will send Buddy into the ruck after all other options are deemed usless

9: The crows will be boring but competitive

10: Dean Laidly will be Port coach by round 18

11: Paul Roos will rely on the manufactured "Bloods" culture to serve as a diversion of theire performaances much like North did with their "shinboners spirit " crap

12: Gabblet will sign with the cats on such a contract that the rest of the Cats will be paying back money to the club to afford it

13: The dogs will sook that they were robbed of a victory on the back of an act of stupidity from hall/lake/minson ?

14: Luke Ball will have a 30 possesion game against the Tigers and the Media will go crazy about how great a player he is ... the next week he gets 8 possessions then go's missing for the rest of the year

15: Dean Bailey to be moved to the role of football manager to make way for Garry Lyon

16: Saints to win long awaited Flag !!!